THIS WEEKEND Despite
a pair of newcomers close behind in its rearview mirror, Will Ferrell's
hit comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky
Bobby finished in first place for the second consecutive weekend
to retain its North American box office trophy. The frame's biggest shocker
came in second place with the stellar debut of the teen dance drama Step
Up which flew past expectations to edge out Oliver Stone's high-profile
9/11 film World Trade Center which
opened with solid results in third place. The new horror film Pulse
launched in fifth place with mediocre results while Tim Allen's family
film Zoom imploded with a disastrous
bow in ninth place.

Talladega Nights held onto the number
one spot with $22.1M in its second weekend of release, according to final
studio figures, dropping an understandable 53%. The $73M Sony hit raced
to a total of $90.3M after ten days of release and could find its way to
the $140M mark.

Getting high marks in the runnerup spot was Buena Vista's Step
Up which surprised the industry with a sizzling $20.7M opening
weekend from 2,467 theaters. The PG-13 pic about a trained ballerina who
joins forces with a tough street dancer averaged a sturdy $8,374 per location
and was powered primarily by teenage girls and young women. The surprise
muscle of Step Up played out much like
the bow of another late-summer film targeting teen girls - 2000's Bring
It On. That pic debuted at number one with $17.4M, spent two
weeks at the top, and found its way to $68.4M followed by a pair of non-theatrical
sequels keeping the franchise alive to this day.

Oliver Stone's 9/11 drama World Trade Center
finished in third place grossing $18.7M over the weekend and $26.5M since
debuting on Wednesday. Averaging a solid $6,334 from 2,957 theaters over
the Friday-to-Sunday portion, the Paramount release stars Nicolas Cage
and Michael Pena as cops buried underneath the rubble of the collapsed
Twin Towers. Reviews were mostly positive for the $65M film and word-of-mouth
so far seems positive. Studio research showed that 91% of those polled
called the disaster drama "excellent" or "very good".

While young moviegoers were lining up for Step
Up, World Trade Center skewed
mostly to a mature adult audience with 65% of the crowd being over the
age of 25. Females made up 55% of the audience. With good reviews, positive
buzz, and almost no interesting films for adults opening in the coming
weeks, World Trade Center could hold
up well in the weeks ahead.

Paramount's animated comedy Barnyard
dropped only 39% in its second weekend to $9.7M for fourth place. With
$33.7M in the bank after ten days, the toon could find its way to about
$60M. The PG-rated film's budget was under $50M.

The suspense thriller Pulse debuted
in fifth with $8.2M from a launch in 2,323 sites. Averaging a mild $3,532
per location for The Weinstein Co., the PG-13 film made only a small dent
in the overall box office.

Disney took in $7.2M with its summer tentpole Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest lifting its incredible total
to a towering $392.4M. The Johnny Depp smash fell just 34% and now sits
at number seven on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters just behind
Spider-Man which hauled in $403.7M
in 2002. Overseas, there's still no stopping Pirates
which vaulted its international total to $463M pushing the global
gross to a stunning $855M.

Universal's action remake Miami Vice
suffered another steep drop falling 54% to $4.7M for a $55.3M total. The
horror flick The Descent dropped 48%
in its second weekend to $4.6M and pushed its ten-day tally to a decent
$17.5M. The Lionsgate release should dig up $25-27M by the end of its run.

Sony's Tim Allen family pic Zoom
crashed and burned in its debut grossing a measly $4.5M in its opening
weekend. Playing in 2,501 theaters, the PG-rated film about an old super
hero recruited to train a bunch of kids averaged an embarrassing $1,803
per venue. The studio's animated pic Monster House
rounded out the top ten with $3.3M, off 46%, for a $63.7M cume to date.

Four more films were tossed right out of the top ten this weekend. Fox's
high school comedy John Tucker Must Die
fell 51% to $3M in its third frame. With a solid $35.8M, the low-budget
teen hit should finish with around $40M. Fellow comedy You,
Me and Dupree grossed $1.9M, down 47%, and has collected $70.8M
to date. Universal's $54M pic is set to reach an impressive $74M.

Not-so-impressive results came from The Ant
Bully with $1.9M and The Night Listener
with $1.5M. Tumbling 52%, the Warner Bros. toon has taken in just $22.5M
and will stumble to about $25M. Miramax's Robin Williams thriller has grossed
a puny $6.4M for Miramax and could end up with only $8M.

With Hollywood's summer season of blockbusters coming to an end, plenty
of activity was brewing over the weekend with limited release titles. ThinkFilm
opened its critically-acclaimed indie Half Nelson
in just two New York theaters but grossed a stellar $53,983. The R-rated
drama about an inner city teacher with an addiction to crack averaged a
potent $26,991 and expands to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington
D.C. on August 25.

India's Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never
Say Goodbye) set a new opening weekend record for Bollywood films in North
America bowing to a stellar $1.4M from 64 locations for a potent $21,122
average. The three-hour-plus extravaganza from Yash Raj Films was shot
in New York City and tells of two soul mates, married to other people,
who tackle the notion of true love. The previous record for a Bollywood
opening was $1M for 2001's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie
Gham which was also directed by Karan Johar. KANK
scored the best per-theater average of any film in the Top 40.

Sony Classics premiered the Brazilian drama The
House of Sand in five locations in New York and Los Angeles
and grossed $33,000 for a moderate $6,600 average. The distributor's teen
pregnancy drama Quinceanera widened
from eight to 27 theaters in its second weekend and grossed $134,457 giving
the Sundance award winner a mild $4,979 average. Total to date stands at
$273,975.

Indie darling Little Miss Sunshine
witnessed another powerful expansion widening from 58 to 153 locations
for a weekend gross of $2.6M and a sizzling average of $17,014. Fox Searchlight
reported that audiences in the new cities are responding to the stellar
word-of-mouth while theaters in existing markets are holding up remarkably
well. The weekend decline among holdover theaters was only 17%. With $5.6M
in the bank, look for Little Miss Sunshine
to pop into the top ten next weekend when it expands into 600 playdates
nationwide and remain there with a wider push into 1,500 locations the
following frame. So far, the dysfunctional family comedy has performed
even better than the distributor's spring indie hit Thank
You for Smoking as well as its 2004 hit Garden
State which was released at this same time and in similar fashion.
Those films went on to gross $24.7M and $26.8M, respectively.

Paramount Vantage's global warming film An
Inconvenient Truth became the third biggest documentary of all
time over the weekend. Al Gore's success story took in $370,443 in its
12th weekend and lifted its cume to $21.9M surpassing the $21.6M of 2002's
Oscar-winning doc Bowling for Columbine.

The top ten films grossed $103.8M which was up 4% from last year when
Four Brothers debuted at number one
with $21.2M; but down 13% from 2004 when Alien
vs. Predator opened in the top spot with a robust $38.3M.

Compared to projections, Step Up
powered way beyond my $8M forecast while World
Trade Center opened very close to my $18M prediction. Pulse
debuted on target with my $8M projection and Zoom
bowed weaker than my $9M forecast.

For NEW reviews of World Trade Center
and The House of Sand, visit The
Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Snakes
on a Plane, Accepted, Material
Girls, and The Illusionist
all open.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Data source: Exhibitor
Relations and EDI. Opinions expressed
in this column are those solely of the author.